1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the design of wooden baseball bats such as laminate maple bats and, more particularly, to an improved laminate baseball bat construction which is assembleable from a plurality of individual pieces initially secured together with high strength adhesive and which provides a more break-resistant construction while taking advantage of the ability to construct a bat from various scrap pieces and which may also possess a larger diameter barrel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Baseball bats, particularly those constructed of wood laminate bats various composite bats, are well known in the prior art. The most well known of ash wood laminate bats utilizes several laminates within the handle portion of the bat. Composite bats, or those constructed of more than one type or piece of a selected wood, utilizes various types of wrappings and resins incorporated within the handle portions. This methodology has resulted in xe2x80x9cdeadxe2x80x9d feeling bats which, when utilized by young hitters, cannot provide the precise hitting that is required for solid wood bats. Many young careers in baseball fail because they are imparted with bad hitting mechanics taught by current laminate wood, plastic and metal bats. Additional aspects of prior art bats include the lower grades of wood such as ash, and which are utilized in prior art laminate bats, are generally not as resilient as in higher grades of wood. This results in a ball not traveling as far once it has been hit with a specified degree of force and speed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,433,481, issued to Tanguay et al., is directed to a reinforced baseball bat wrapping and indicates, at column 1, lines 35-45, that such wrappings have been attempted in the art for such things as maple and mahogany bat designs. However, Tanguay further states that such maple and mahogany bat designs, up to that point in time, would not be economically practicable due to their incidence of breakage. It is well also well known in the earlier art that such bat compositions as mahogany and maple were at the time unsuitable owing to the denser natures of such wood and the relatively primitive nature of earlier manufacture which could not overcome such problems as weight, brittleness and curly graining which made manufacture of such bats for the purpose of game play nearly impossible.
Wooden laminate ash bats, die cast aluminum and magnesium alloy bats are also known in the art, however such bats are not all authorized for professional league play. Accordingly there is still a need in the art for a durable laminate wood bat construction with performance characteristics equal to the solid maple bat in performance, durability, longevity and most importantly the feel of a solid wood baseball bat.
The present invention is a laminate baseball bat formed from a plurality of individual pieces of maple wood, and preferably from ten solid pieces of wood adhesively assembled together to form an initial bat blank. As previously stated, the laminate bat construction of the instant invention makes possible the creation of a durable maple bat from a plurality of individual pieces adhesively secured together into a blank and turned to construct a durable and resilient article.
The bat construction includes an elongate extending member provided as a solid square cross sectional shape and which extends in preferred variants to lengths of up to 36xe2x80x2. The elongate extending member typically includes no laminations and has a first knob end and a second barrel end. The knob end of the elongate member is surrounded by a first plurality of first, second, third and fourth laminated pieces of solid maple. Each of the first through fourth pieces have a specified length, typically no more than 2xe2x80x2, are outwardly tapered in cross sectional dimension, the result being that, upon adhesively securing them together, they provide the adhesively assembled bat blank with an evenly aligned and enlarged knob end prior to turning of the blank in the lathe machine.
A second plurality of first, second, third and fourth elongated and laminated pieces of maple, these each extending in a preferred embodiment to an overall length of at least 24xe2x80x2, are likewise outwardly tapered in cross sectional dimension and are adhesively secured around a preselected length of the main extending member corresponding to an intermediate length and barrel end length and excluding a handle length of the main member. To provide ideal weighting and performance characteristics to the bat, a second remote end of the main extending member terminates, in the preferred variant, three to six inches short of the corresponding ends of the second plurality of elongated and laminated pieces of maple.
An end cap, typically two inches in length, is inserted into the hollow recess of the barrel end and closes off the hollowed interior of the barrel. It is also envisioned within the scope of the invention that the main member may be one solid and continuous piece terminating at the barrel end and obviating the need for the end cap. It is desirous to have an internally hollowed and axially running section of the barrel, since maple is by nature a denser wood than conventional ash and the axially extending hollowed interior provides the additional feature of resiliency and weighting to the bat. During the turning process of the adhesively assembled bat blank, a xe2x80x9ccuppingxe2x80x9d or recessing is machined into the exposed barrel end of the end cap insert. The degree and curvature of the cavitation formed within the recessed end is made possible by the higher specific gravity exhibited by maple, as opposed to ash, and which further contributes to weight reduction, control and resiliency of the bat.
In most instances, the handle contains no laminations and the grain direction of the bat is determined by placing a label on top of the grain of the handle. Two ribbons that typically occur along the entire length of a solid maple bat will be hidden by the laminations surrounding the square handle portion at the barrel end of the bat. The solid handle is the heart of the bat and gives the feel of a solid maple bat. This handle portion is surrounded by four biased cut approximately two inch long laminate pieces of solid maple to make up the circumference of the knob and the heel taper from the handle portion to the integral knob at the first end. An outwardly tapered and intermediate portion extends from the handle portion and in turn is integrally formed with a ball hitting barrel portion, the barrel portion terminating at a second end. This intermediate portion and second end is connected by the square handle is again surrounded by four biased cut approximately twenty four inch long pieces of solid maple to make up the circumference of the outwardly tapered and intermediate portion extends from the handle portion and in turn is integrally formed with a ball hitting barrel portion at a second end. Within this lamination of the barrel portion a three to six inch section of the handle square is removed. At the second end of the laminated barrel portion a two-inch handle section is inserted to complete the monologue construction of the laminate maple bat barrel. The adjustment of the length of this hollow space enables manufacture of predetermined models of game acceptable weight bats.
Reference will now be made to the attached drawings, when read in combination with the following specification, wherein like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views, and in which:
FIG. 1 is a lengthwise elevation view of a completed bat constructed from the laminate maple blank construction according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is end elevational view of the multi-piece and laminate maple bat and illustrating the xe2x80x9ccuppingxe2x80x9d or recessing of the exposed barrel end according to the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a lengthwise elevational view of the laminate maple blank and illustrating in phantom of the desired configuration of the bat to be constructed by the turning operation as well as the hollowed interior aligned with the barrel end according to the present invention;
FIG. 4 is an end view taken along line 4xe2x80x944 of FIG. 3 and illustrating the assembled view of the knob end of the laminate maple blank according to the present invention;
FIG. 5 is an end view taken along line 5xe2x80x945 of FIG. 3 and illustrating the barrel end of the laminate maple blank according to the present invention;
FIG. 6 is an exploded view of the multi-piece maple blank construction according to the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a further sectional view enlarged to show the substantially cylindrical shaped and recessed barrel end cavity of the maple bat construction according to the present invention; and
FIG. 8 is an end view of the recessed barrel cavity shown in FIG. 7 and according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention.